Survivor's Benjamin "Coach" Wade doesn't sound crazy on the phone. Yes, fellow Survivors have said he isn't "grounded in reality" and accused him of being "off the reservation," and even Survivor host Jeff Probst has questioned his claims that he's survived a shark attack, a hurricane, and being abducted by Amazonian tribesmen who, Wade says, considered eating him. (Allegations of cannibalism aren't unheard of in the region.) Wade, a soccer coach, composer, and the show's self-proclaimed "Dragon Slayer," was voted off after the once-united J.T. and Stephen split their votes, setting up an anything-can-happen showdown between J.T., Stephen, Taj and Erinn. Check back with us Monday for a recap of Sunday's finale and an interview with the winner.

TVGuide.com: Some of the other contestants concluded that you were out of touch with reality. Coach: I can assure you that I am not delusional; I am not crazy... When I went down there, I made a promise to myself that I would be true to myself and that I would tell people everything about me. I gave every fiber of my being. I gave every ounce of physical strength, of mental strength, of sensationalism, with the Dragon Slayer and Chong Ran [meditation] and doing all these crazy moves down in the water. That stuff was for the camera, yes. But the stories that I told and who I am as a man, you can see it in the game. I played with honor and integrity. I went into a deceitful area and a deceitful game and tried to be a light-shining beacon to those people.

Not that I'm better than those people. In fact, I think the opposite. Part of my bravado at the beginning and what was perceived as arrogance was me trying to psych myself up to play a game against people that were younger than me. Brendan was stronger than me, Tyson was a hell of a lot better athlete than me, Debbie was more vivacious and social than me, Erinn was smarter than me... I can just go on and on.

TVGuide.com: You haven't fully explained how you say you were captured by Amazonians or what happened. Can you elaborate? [Warning: Things are about to get gross.]Coach: [Pause] You know, gosh. ... It takes a lot for me to tell it because I haven't told it a lot and it's a very traumatic experience. I know that there are documented cases or legends of people in the Amazon in that upper reach — that their ultimate conquest over a man is to cut off [his genitals] and stuff it down their mouth and eviscerate them as it's going through their intestines and the last thing you see is somebody eat your own manhood in front of you, and then you bleed to death. And that's something that was in the back of my mind when I went down there. It was something in the back of my mind when I was sitting there in that village, saying I'm never going to get out of here. And it was a very traumatic experience. And when Jeff asked me at Tribal [Council] and I was like, 'They were gonna eat me.' Of course that was blown out of context.

TVGuide.com: After telling you that there wouldn't be any surprises, Stephen voted against you. What are your thoughts on him now, and what's next for the game?Coach: I think if push would have come to shove, J.T. would have voted for me if his vote was needed, and he was doing the smooth, Southern way of making it look like he had washed his hands. As far as the rest of the game, are they going to split? Are they going to stay loyal? That will be — now that the Dragon Slayer has exited stage right — that will be the... climax of the game.

TVGuide.com: What's next for you?Coach: I'm full-time conducting my symphony now. I want to write 20 different symphonies on 20 different cultures, 20 different countries in the next 20 years. It's something that's been a goal of mine for the last year at least. And I've got a couple of offers for coaching, so Coach will still be Coach.

After 18 seasons of Survivor, it’s hard to say there’s been anyone more unique than “Coach” Benjamin Wade, a soccer coach, a man of adventure, a conductor of a California orchestra, a musician, and one of the most contentiously entertaining tribe members in Survivor history. Early in the season of Survivor Tocantins, “Coach” became a dominant tribal force when he and his Timbira tribe mate, Candace Smith, clashed in a battle of egos in the Brazilian Highlands. From then on Coach, the self proclaimed Dragon Slayer of Survivor, earned a reputation as an eccentric and strong philosophical presence that rubbed a lot of tribe members the wrong way while also earning the respect of some of the strongest players on Survivor Tocantins.

While most of his tribe mates came from the conventional and seemingly “normal” 9 to 5 world, Coach has led a life that most people would find unbelievable. And when Coach told a story mid-way through Survivor Tocantins about getting kidnapped and beaten by Pygmies in the Amazon, no matter how true it was, could you blame anyone for thinking Coach was telling tall tales outside of the orchestra?

But with all of the controversy surrounding Coach’s adventure stories, his life philosophy, his warrior spirituality, and his open nature, plus what many perceived to be overly dramatic theatrics in the most recent episode of Survivor Tocantins, there’s an interesting, multilayered man underneath the tattoos.

As we found out when we talked to Coach the morning after his torch was extinguished by his Tribal Council sparring partner, Jeff Probst, Coach has a unique world view but he’s also a humble guy at the same time. After getting to know the “on-screen” Coach Benjamin Wade, we also got to briefly know the “off-screen” Coach after chatting about where he felt the game starting to slip away from him, how he feels about his Survivor portrayal and public Tocantins reception, whether it was easy to manipulate his tribe mates, and what it was like to go toe-to-toe with Jeff Probst at Tribal Council.

THE DEADBOLT: When did you feel your hold on the game beginning to slip?

COACH: Without question, when Tyson was voted out. That was a shock to me. I don't know if you watched the deleted scenes, but I actually choked up the next day thinking what a great and noble warrior he had been. It hurt, you know? He was my best friend in the game, and when he left I realized that things were going to permanently change.

THE DEADBOLT: How frustrating was it for you to know that most people think all of your stories are just tall tales or exaggerations?

COACH: Yeah, you know, it is tough. I think that I am a unique individual and I think that if you guys were telling these stories and I was on the flip side, I think I would be a little bit incredulous as well about them. It's hard because I don't tell those stories to edify myself. Actually, I know at the beginning of the game I came off as a little bit arrogant. That was my way of psyching myself up, because I knew people like Brendan would be stronger. I knew people like Tyson would be faster. I knew Debbie would have a better social game than me. And so it was actually my way to just kind of psych myself up. I don't think I'm better than everybody. And if I wouldn't lie for a million dollars, why would I lie about anything else?

THE DEADBOLT: In your opinion, what's the biggest mistake you made in terms of gameplay?

COACH: [laughs] Well, honestly, I think my game play was horrible. I mean, I look at myself and I see everything crumbling around me and yet here I am this noble warrior that is saying I will be loyal to the people that I said I was going to be loyal to. And meanwhile everything is crumbling around me and I'm too set in my ways to make any changes. But again, I'm comfortable with that. I wouldn't have played the game any different. As far as my gameplay, I'm probably one of the most harmless, worst Survivors in history as far as just the game play itself. And I look at myself and I'm like, 'Oh, my goodness! I can't believe it. You can see the writing on the wall.' And I'm just like a lamb led to the slaughter. 'No, I'm going to be loyal to the end,' and it was to my detriment.

THE DEADBOLT: Actually, with that being said, you appeared as a master manipulator. Were you surprised at how easy it was to steer most of the tribe mates in the direction you wanted?

COACH: I don't know. I mean, as far as being a master manipulator, “mani” talks about your hands and “pulation” talks about moving, so if you look at moving with your hands and you look at “manipulation” as a good thing, directing with your hands, like I do with the soccer team and with the orchestra, then I guess that you can say that. But manipulation in a negative connotation, I don't think so. I think if you look at each one, Candice, everybody saw that. Brendan, that was a great coup. Really, Brendan was really my only strategic move in the game, which Tyson of course obviously helped pave the way for that one. So I don't think I'm this master manipulator. But if it's a positive thing, sure, I'll take it.

THE DEADBOLT: What did you think of Jeff's persistent questioning? Did that screw up your game at all?

COACH: I love Jeff. Not in a sexual way, I’ve got to clarify that, like what I said with Tyson. No, Jeff's the man, and I'm not saying that to be sycophantic. I'm just saying he has very good intuition, he likes to get to the bottom of things, and he likes to push your buttons to see how you'll react. I loved it. You know, it would be great to come out with - this sounds very egotistical, but it's not - but I think it would be very cool to have a Tribal of Jeff and my interactions from the whole game, because you guys saw just the tip of the iceberg. He and I would go back and forth and it was a great sparring match that I think both of us looked forward to going to Tribal.

Ben/Coach says casting threatened him, calls Survivor aftermath “most difficult [time] in my life”Survivor Tocantins » June 7, 2009, 11:30 PMBenjamin “Coach” Wade talked extensively to the Missouri News-Leader, which first reported he was from his job as a soccer coach earlier this year. It’s absolutely worth a read, covering everything from what he’s doing now (“I know I’m going to have two offers from community colleges in coaching. I want to still be a coach, I want to get into public speaking more. We’ll see what opens up. It’s a total state of limbo.”) to why he told me that his team thought he was being tested for cancer.

Just as he was when he talked to me the day after his elimination episode aired, he shows considerable humility and honesty, saying “the last four months have been, without question, the most difficult in my life. … I’ve had just about everything taken away from me that you can have taken away. It’s in those valleys that you really grow.” He doesn’t so much blame the editing as acknowledge that it only showed parts of him, yet he admits those parts were actually him.

Although he pulls out the annoying God’s plan card, which is what people use to disown any responsibility for their own actions (“everything that happened after that was meant to happen”), he is reflective (“I was able to look at myself in the worst light, in the darkest moments, in the most preposterous and pompous things that I would say”), and says the experience has lead him to change (“in the personal relationships maybe being a little bit too over critical”).

The newest and most interesting part, however, is that he’s also now going after the location and casting producers. He says no one doubted or questioned his kidnapping kayak story until “the producers systematically went to work on every single person. Steven and JT and Debbie and Tyson have all told me this … to get that edit that they wanted to drag me through here and bring me out on the other side.” He does say, “I am honored by the edit that I got. … It’s made me a stronger person.”

As to his firing, it’s a long and complicated explanation (read the whole interview), but it boils down to him telling one supervisor but not the athletic director, the person who actually fired him. As part of that story, Ben says that when producers called him to say he’d been cast and told him production would begin in late October, he said no because his team was doing well. Ben says “they went off on me. They said: ‘Do you know what you’re turning down? We’re going to blackball you in Hollywood.’ They were (angry). And I said that’s me. You look at the show — I was loyal. I was loyal to a fault. Never went back on my word. … I’m very loyal, and I’m fiercely loyal to those girls that I coach. So I told them no. They were so ticked off at me, they couldn’t believe it.”

He said later, “I wish, in retrospect, that I would have gone and told my athletic director before I left, but CBS was, like, ‘We’re going to sue you for $5 million if you break this clause. We’ll cancel the season.’ They just brainwash you before you even go down there.”